
View of Lokichokio
Lokichokio, also
Lokichoggio or Lokichogio, is a town in the
Turkana District, northwest of
Kenya
( ). It is often called
Loki.
The town lies on the A1 road and is served by the Lokichogio
Airport
.
It is
about 30 kilometers from the international border with Sudan
and is host
to UN offices (part of the Operation Lifeline Sudan program),
around 49 NGO, and a
large hospital run by the ICRC.
Local peoples are mainly
nomads of
the Turkana tribe and derive their livelihood by looking after
indigenous
cattle.
Ninety kilometers
south of Loki is Kakuma
, one of the
largest refugee camps in Kenya.
Refugees
from Sudan
, Ethiopia
, Somalia
, the
DRC
and several other surrounding countries can be
found in Kakuma.
Loki is outermost Kenyan town on the border with Sudan.
Kenyans
from the southern part of Loki, however, maintain that Lodwar
, which is
about 200 kilometers south, is the last truly "Kenyan" town in the
region. At the north end of Loki, beyond the noted dry river
bed, the
Kenyan military has set
up a
border checkpoint. This is
considered the "true" border between Kenya and Sudan. Beyond this
point lies a road leading to
Nadapal, the
Sudanese checkpoint which is about thirty kilometers away. The area
known as "
no-man's land" is situated
between these two checkpoints.
The
Middle East Reformed
Fellowship maintains a base here to administer diaconal aid to
Sudan, a training centre for pastors and elders from Sudan, Kenya
and surrounding areas, and a broadcasting centre that prepares
messages in the Dinka and Nuer languages.
In fiction
The town has been mentioned several times in pieces of fiction
dealing with UN and NGO aid activity there. It was featured in the
John Le Carré book on which the 2005 film
The Constant Gardener was
based, and served as the setting for much of
Philip Caputo's novel,
Acts of Faith.
References
External links